Albert Edwards, Societe Generale SA's chief global strategist, hasn't been the top-ranked Extel survey macro analyst for the past 20 years because he's an optimist. He's famed for his permabear outlook, predicting "ice-age" negative western bond yields mimicking the lost decades of growth that Japan suffered. Yet, in person, he’s far from the apocalyptic Grinch his research notes might suggest. His penchant for wild, flowery shirts (check out his X profile) reveals a cheerful disposition. Nonetheless, there’s no doubt he can skewer lazy group-think or counterproductive financial policies with alacrity.

Edwards, 62, started in the City of London 40 years ago as a Bank of England economist after completing a masters degree in economics at Birkbeck, University of London. But he cites his three-year stint as an asset manager at Bank of America Corp., coinciding with the 1987 Wall Street crash, as fundamental to how he thinks — and writes — about the world.